Cyclone Racer project down to three possible Long Beach locations

Larry Osterhoudt's obsession is the old Cyclone Racer roller coaster and has built a 1/15 scale model of the front portion of the coaster in his workshop at his home in Downey, CA on Tuesday, September 24, 2013. Osterhoudt would like to see the Cyclone Racer rebuilt exaclty as the original somewhere in Long Beach.
(Photo by Scott Varley, Press-Telegram)

City Manager Pat West’s office said a feasibility study on three possible locations for the roller coaster will be conducted. The statement outlines how the proposed coaster would fit at each site and what is still needed for approval.

“It’s kind of like an incomplete puzzle right now,” said Larry Osterhoudt, a Downey resident who is spearheading the campaign to resurrect the historic ride. “Obviously we’re going to address (the city’s) needs.”

There are three proposed locations for the project: a pier south of Shoreline Park, in the park between the lighthouse and Pierpoint Landing, and near the Queen Mary.

The locations near Shoreline Park require a more lengthy approval process than the location by the Queen Mary, Osterhoudt said.

Tom Modica, deputy city manager, said the coaster would be a fairly complex development. Final project approval could depend on approval from the California Costal Commission, the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, depending on which of the three locations is chosen, he said.

Osterhoudt and members of his team met with representatives from the Queen Mary last month and will be meeting this month with Carnival Cruise Line and STQ/Garrison, another lease holder on the location, to discuss a sublease between Garrison and Osterhoudt’s company.

The Cyclone Racer opened in 1930 and ran for 38 years at The Pike amusement park’s Silver Spray Pier. It was closed in 1968 to make way for Shoreline Drive.

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Osterhoudt became interested in the roller coaster in the late 1990s. He reverse-engineered the blueprints, spending $17,000 of his money on equipment to draw the plan and build a 1/15th scale model of the front portion of the Cyclone Racer.

“I wish there was a way to speed it up,” Osterhoudt said. “We’re kind of in a holding pattern right now, but I think it’s coming along pretty quickly. We launched this in September after all.”